The present invention relates generally to multiservice networks, and more particularly to a method and system to provide bandwidth management within multiservice networks.
FIG. 1A illustrates key components of a multiservice network 10 having a core network 12 that includes a plurality of core nodes 14 (i.e. service provider backbone or provider core nodes) interconnected with core links 16. An access network 18 that includes a plurality of edge nodes 20 (i.e. service provider edge or provider edge nodes) provide access to the core network 12 through the links 16 for a plurality of access nodes 23 and/or for a plurality of customer premise edge (CPE) nodes 24.
The CPE nodes 24 originate user connections, such as ATM, FR, voice or MPLS service requests. The access nodes 23 optionally lie between the CPEs 24 and the edge nodes 20. The access nodes 23 do not perform aggregation (i.e. individual user connections are all visible). The access nodes 23 run the service protocols (e.g. ATM P-NNI, FR routing) and generally use single-level bandwidth management.
The edge nodes 20 (also called edge switch/routers) perform the interworking function/adaptation between the access 18 and the core 12. The edge nodes 20 fully participate in the access network 18 similar to the access nodes 23 discussed above and fully participate in the core transport 12. The edge nodes 20 also perform the aggregation of access/user connections into transport tunnels across the core 12.
The core nodes 14 (also called core routers or MPLS core routers) have no visibility of individual user connections or applications (i.e. pure IP/MPLS routers). The core nodes 14 are connected to the edge nodes 20 and among themselves with the core links 16 and perform single-level bandwidth management (namely, Transport Bandwidth Management), which manages the bandwidth of the underlying physical links between the various transport tunnels. The core and edge nodes 14, 20 participate in the core routing and maintain the same core topology database.
Prior art models use a flat network architecture, which makes no distinction between the access 18 and core 12 networks. Each CPE node 24 connection is mapped to a corresponding Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Label Switched Path (LSP) connection at the access/edge 23, 20 node. Compared to traditional pure IP connectionless networks, the use of MPLS has been proposed to provide the capabilities of traffic engineering with constraint-based routing, alternate paths for redundancy, and load distribution. Another motivation for using MPLS is to provide connections with different characteristics to support a range of services and quality of service (QoS) levels.
Although these solutions improve scalability somewhat, a large number of LSP connections in the network 10 are required. This is not scalable because the core nodes 14 are required to maintain context and signaling support for a very large number of individual user connections/flows (i.e. between the CPEs 24) sharing the network 10. The increased number of LSP network connections introduces further disadvantages such as operations complexity, slow failure recovery, and increased network control overhead
Consequently, there is a need for a method and system for managing bandwidth in multiservice network, (supporting for example ATM, FR, IP, MPLS, circuit emulation) that minimizes operations complexity, speeds up failure recovery, and minimized network control overhead.
The present invention provides a hierarchical bandwidth management model for multiservice networks that creates one or more aggregate tunnels for carrying user traffic between edge nodes in a multiservice network. In an exemplary embodiment the invention also provides a hierarchical admission structure: one at a transport level for the label switched paths and one at a service level for user/application connections.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of hierarchical bandwidth management in a multiservice network supporting a plurality of quality of service levels and a plurality of applications, the multiservice network includes a core, a plurality of access nodes and a plurality of edge nodes having connectivity with each other through the core, the method comprising the steps of: (a) establishing a plurality of transport connection tunnels between pairs of the edge nodes in the network; and (b) managing bandwidth of the transport connection tunnels among the plurality of quality of service levels and the plurality of applications.
In an exemplary embodiment step (a) above includes the steps of: (a1) establishing at least one transport pool; (a2) assigning the plurality of quality of service levels to the least one transport pool; and (a3) assigning at least one transport pool to the plurality of transport connections.
In an exemplary embodiment step (b) above includes the steps of, (b1) establishing at least one application pool; and (b2) assigning the plurality of applications to the least one application pool.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of hierarchical bandwidth management in a multiservice network supporting a plurality of quality of service levels and a plurality of applications, said multiservice network having a core, a plurality of access nodes and a plurality of edge nodes having connectivity with each other through the core, said method comprising the steps of: (a) establishing a transport connection tunnel between pairs of the edge nodes in the network; and (b) managing bandwidth of the transport connection tunnel among die plurality of quality of service levels and the plurality of applications.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus for hierarchical bandwidth management in a multiservice network supporting a plurality of quality of service levels and a plurality of applications, said multiservice network having a core, a plurality of access nodes and a plurality of edge nodes having connectivity with each other through the core, said apparatus comprising: (a) a transport bandwidth management (TBM) module for establishing a transport connection tunnel between pairs of the edge nodes in the network; and (b) a service bandwidth management (SBM) module communicatively coupled to the TBM module for managing bandwidth of the transport connection tunnel among the plurality of quality of service levels and the plurality of applications.
In an exemplary embodiment, the TBM module includes: a module for establishing and managing a transport pool; a module for assigning the plurality of quality of service levels to the transport pool; and a module for assigning the transport connection tunnel to the transport pool.
In an exemplary embodiment, the SBM module includes: a module for establishing and managing a plurality of application pools; a module for assigning the plurality of applications at the plurality of quality of service levels to each of the plurality of application pools; and a module for assigning the application connection to the plurality of application pools.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program product for hierarchical bandwidth management in a multiservice network supporting a plurality of service categories and a plurality of applications, said multiservice network having a core, a plurality of access nodes and a plurality of edge nodes having connectivity with each other through the core, said computer program product comprising: (a) a computer readable medium; (b) a transport bandwidth management (TBM) module for establishing a transport connection tunnel between pairs of the edge nodes in the network; and (c) a service bandwidth management (SBM) module communicatively coupled to the TBM module for managing bandwidth of the transport connection tunnel among the plurality of quality of service levels and the plurality of applications.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of hierarchical bandwidth management in a multiservice network supporting a plurality of quality of service levels and a plurality of applications, said multiservice network having a core, a plurality of access nodes and a plurality of edge nodes for establishing user connections, said edge nodes having connectivity with each other through the core, said method comprising the steps of: (a) establishing a plurality of transport connection tunnels between pairs of the edge nodes in the network at a transport layer; (b) managing bandwidth of the transport connection tunnels at an application layer; (c) controlling admission of the plurality of transport connection tunnels at the transport layer; and (d) controlling admission of the user connections belonging to the plurality of applications at the plurality of quality of service levels.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.